What is Streaming?

Streaming media is a technology that enables you to include audio,
video and other multimedia elements into your websites in a more
seamless and efficient way than was possible in the past. Visitors to
your website will be able to listen to or view media files as they are
downloaded in real time.

Streaming video is a sequence of "moving images" that are sent in
compressed form over the Internet and displayed by the viewer as
they arrive. Streaming media is streaming video with sound. With
streaming video or streaming media, a Web user does not have to wait
to download a large file before seeing the video or hearing the
sound. Instead, the media is sent in a continuous stream and is
played as it arrives. The user needs a player (CCRI users will be
using Windows Media Player for playing all video/audio files), which
is a special program that uncompresses and sends video data to the
display and audio data to speakers. A player can be either an
integral part of a browser or downloaded from the software maker's
website.

How does it work?

Audio, video and other media files are specially formatted and
placed on a streaming server. Web pages can call these media files
as hyperlinks. When users click a media link on a web page, the
contents of the media file begin to flow across the Internet in a
gradual and continuous stream from the streaming server to the
user’s browser. After about a 5- to 10-second delay, audio and video
files begin to play either in a popup window or embedded into the
web page. Users can pause, rewind and fast-forward media clips using
a VCR-type control panel.

With streaming, learners can access lengthy pre-recorded audio and
video clips to enhance and enrich their study of a topic. Students
can also watch, or listen to, a live event remotely. In the case of
distributed learning, streaming audio and video can serve as the
primary mode of content delivery.

What is the quality of streaming media?

Quality is dependent on the bandwidth, media content (motion vs.
non-motion) or the amount of data that needs to be moved per second
across the network. For best viewing quality, we recommend the
use of DSL or high speed Cable Internet connections. The use
of dialup modems may not not produce the best video quality. Dialup
may cause long delays in downloading the video file. At dialup
speeds, audio is comparable to an AM radio broadcast and video may
have poor motion or be blurry.